Fr. Anselmo
Hernandez, LC is from Brooklyn, NY. He was ordained in
Rome on January 2, 2001, and entered the US Army
as a chaplain in 2008. He was deployed to Iraq
in 2009, returned in 2011, and is now stationed in
Ft. Eustis, VA, awaiting his next deployment.

What brought the idea of
being a military chaplain to your mind and what motivated
you to go through with it?

Let´s start from the
beginning. I entered the US Army in June of 2008.The process had started almost a year before,
while I was in Rome studying for my licentiate in
Moral Theology. I spoke to the Military Archbishop at the
time, who was a friend of mine (he was the
rector of the North American College in Rome while I
was a philosopher and I spent a bit of time
there visiting with friends I had been in the seminary
with in Brooklyn). He told me that he needed help.
At that same time I had been receiving e-mails from
soldiers telling me how they had not seen a priest
in 6 month - some even for a year while
deployed to the war zone.

I spoke to Fr. Álvaro Corcuera and
he invited me to pray about it and see what
God was asking of me. After a few months, while
having a snack during the semester exams, Fr. Alvaro walked
up to me and whispered in my ear, say yes.
This confirmed what I felt as well, and I started
the paperwork to enter the military (as well as an
exercise program so as to be ready).

So what brought me to
do this?I would say it is what
has always moved us to do what we do as

Legionaries and Regnum Christi members: seeing the needs of the
Kingdom and hearing God´s voice calling us to action. God´s
will has always been the "north" that guides what I
try to do and I know that if he is
the one who is asking this of me, then it
is the best thing for me. That way, in the
end it’s ‘his problem’: You called me to this?I will give it my all…now you send the
graces needed!

What
are your duties as a military chaplain?

My "job" is
to care for the spiritual needs of my troops (all
of them; not only the Catholics) and their families, to
ensure the free practice of their faith, and to serve
as the advisor to the Commander in elements of religion,
morale, etc.How do I do these things?I know all my troops and their families
and I try to ensure that they not only live
out their faith (and again, not only Catholics), but that
they deepen in knowledge of their faith, as well as
allowing them to know me and my faith. As a
priest, I care for the Catholic, but I also provide
coverage for those who are not Catholic but would like
to attend their services according to their faith group –
I try to find Protestant chaplains to hold services for
my Protestant troops, Rabbis to attend to my Jewish troops,
etc. I put together retreats and Bible study groups for
my troops, celebrate Mass, hold adoration, and offer confession, religious
education, spiritual direction, etc. I do all the things that
other priests do, and I also go out to the
field with my troops, train with them, and go to
war with them (without carrying a weapon, of course). The
idea is to bring God to soldiers (and their families),
and soldiers to God.

What’s a normal day in the
life of a US Army chaplain?

Usually the day for
me starts at around 0430 (4:30am), when I get up
and do my morning prayers and meditation. Then at 0630
I do PT (Physical Training) with my troops. By 0800
I am praying the Breviary

so as to be at
the Battalion Headquarters by 0900.At this time
I send out an e-mail blast to my troops with
the "thought of the day," which is a brief meditation
for them to reflect on during the day. Once that
is out, I head on over to the Commander to
check up on him and talk about the troops and
activities that are pending. Once that has been taken care
of, it is time to head out to where the
troops are and spend time with them wherever they are,
giving class, spiritual direction, Mass, and confessions. The day normally
ends around 2200 when I get home to grab a
bite to eat, finish up any work to be done
on the computer, and head to bed around 2300 after
my night prayers.

How do you find that your mission as a military
chaplain fulfills your priestly mission?

I get to serve,
as our Chaplaincy crest says, for God and Country. I
get to take Christ to the hardest realities we can
face. I feel what the troops feel, live what they
live, go through the same difficulties they do; and through
me, so does Christ. How can you not be fulfilled
as a priest when you are there in a war
zone and are able to baptize over 60 soldiers, confirm
just as many, give First Communion to over a hundred,
hold adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and see the little
chapel full of soldiers - with their weapons, and yet
knowing that their true fire power is in their strong
prayer life. What keeps me going is the prayers of
my soldiers and the knowledge that if this is what
Christ is asking, then he will give the necessary graces
to us to reach the end and say, "mission complete."Every Mass, every confession, every anointing, every blessing,
every heart open to God´s grace makes it worthwhile.